James Sant - Portrait of Adelina Patti fixing a ribbon in her hair

This portrait brings together two towering figures of the arts of the 19th Century: James Sant, one of the most celebrated portraitists of his age and from 1872 official portrait painter to Queen Victoria, and Adelina Patti, the Prima Donna of 19th Century opera who remains the highest paid operatic performer in history.

This intimate portrait of Patti shows her in preparation for a performance. The view is touched with a clear love and sentiment for the subject and portrays the sumptuousness and strength of her persona. She was admired as much for her grace, charm and charity as for her soprano voice.

At sixteen she made her operatic debut in Donizetti's Lucia. Her vocal range, bell-like clarity and professionalism won her critical acclaim and soon she was being offered leading soprano roles in operas by Bellini, Rossini, Verdi and other Italian composers. Audiences flocked to see and hear her, from St. Petersburg across to San Francisco and down to Buenos Aires. She later purchased a large Victorian estate in South Wales, Craig-y-Nos. The Patti Theatre was built there, designed as a shrine to the diva and is still very much in use today.

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A blog on my love of Victorian and Edwardian paintings. Please note over 70,000 painters of this period, many very obscure, have been identified and this blog concentrates on those that have come up for auction in the last ten years or so. It is mainly compiled using old auction catalogues with help from the many reference books I own.

It includes painters born in the late 19th century who have painted well into the 20th. I make no pretence that my reproductions are technically accurate but are intended to show the style of the artist.

I rarely know who these paintings were sold to or the price they fetched. I recommend Artnet.com (a subscription service) to those for whom this is important. I am not in the Art trade, just an interested amateur who loves the arts of this period.